1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a method and system to detect keywords or phrases using voice recognition and, more particularly, to a method and system to detect keywords or phrases to dynamically provide cues and/or options for supporting the context of a conversation or speech.
2. Background Description
In various industries, such as service industries, it is common to interact with the public or customer base for a wide variety of reasons. Often a business or institution implements a call center having customer service agents that may include sales oriented agents, technical oriented agents, or general purpose oriented agents to receive and interact with a calling party.
Using a call center as an example, when a caller calls the call center, there may be a substantial number of reasons or topics that the caller may be interested in pursuing, such as, for example, account information, product or service inquiry, information inquiry, complaints, personal inquiry, or other record inquiry. The call may be for such reasons as initiating a transaction of some type such as a call to an insurance agency to report an accident, a query to a repair center, a call to place an order or inquire about financial status of an account. In any case, the agent that receives the call may be tasked with dealing with a large array of possible topics and may be expected to be conversant and proficient with the details of any of the caller's queries.
In current call center methods and systems, for example, an agent may be able to view the client's account and even a call history log that may automatically be presented on a display when the call is presented to the agent. However, during the course of a call, as the context of the conversation evolves, the agent must initiate any new requests for information that may be needed for conveyance to the caller. For example, as a caller inquires about a particular product model(s), the agent must navigate to any database entries for the product, manually, based on the agent's awareness. As a caller inquires about certain topics, the call center agent is typically expected to be agile and knowledgeable about what sources and related topics that may exist and also know how to locate the information. Aids such as cue cards, teleprompters, and notes are typical to aid the agent in their tasks. These are often cumbersome and require constant updating and distribution to call center personnel.
During the course of a conversation, as the scope and context of the interchange develops, a call agent must remember all the topics and manage to log the transaction, typically in some type of ticketing system or database, most of which is typically manually entered. Because call agents are often expected to be knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects, and there is typically little standardization of the call management process to aid an agent based on the call context, confidence in the overall process of optimally responding to a caller's request may be jeopardized. An agent, or even the caller, may easily become frustrated if inadequate information is available in a timely manner during the course of a call. Further, a company or institution may be perceived as being unprepared or inadequate to deal with a wide variety of caller's subjects. If, however, an agent may automatically have access to reliable and timely information during a call, a higher level of satisfaction for the caller, agent, or institution may result.
In other situations, such as a teleprompter for a speaker giving a presentation, the teleprompter provides the speaker the capability to read from a set script but little ability to adjust the presentation based on reactions or questions from the audience. For example, a politician at a news conference cannot easily alter the sequencing of a presentation nor have new information made available based on questions from reporters. Additionally, if a presentation is altered, there is no easy way to remember important facts or topics that may have been temporarily skipped so that the topics may be quickly recalled and addressed later.